Rememory
by Aelibia
Summary: Genfic. Fluttershy remembers, Applejack takes a break, Pinkie Pie lives, Rarity gains her confidence, Rainbow Dash learns how to play football, and Twilight tempts her inner monster.
1. Fluttershy: Train Station

**Fluttershy**

**Train Station**

* * *

><p>Sometimes Fluttershy feels ashamed.<p>

She hears the whispers sometimes, when she returns to Cloudsdale for a visit, a shopping trip, a change in scenery.

_No business galloping around on the ground all the time, can you believe the nerve?_

_Generations of strong fliers, and then her. _What_ must her parents think?_

_Those born with wings are _meant_ to feel the rush of wind in their manes._

Sometimes, in spite of the new meaning she has in her life, she misses the caress of a high-altitude breeze, the undeniable power of the jet stream above, circling a thunderhead just out of lightning's reach.

But then, she thinks on the train to Appleloosa, it's all talk. She is still a Pegasus pony, and her parents still love her. There are places to travel that she never dreamed existed with her head stuck in the clouds. Her destiny is her own.

_the rush of wind in my mane_

She sticks her head out the window and closes her eyes, remembering.


	2. Applejack: Fungi

**Applejack**

**Fungi**

* * *

><p>Sometimes Applejack feels tuckered out.<p>

Working an apple orchard is rarely about fun. It's mostly about work, plain and simple. Any fun is an occasional side effect. Applejack lives by this philosophy, and it has never failed her.

She sees Apple Bloom run off with her filly friends without a care in the world for the barely-started jobs she leaves behind. Applejack always lets her run, never calls her back. Instead, she finishes Apple Bloom's chores, shrugging to herself as she contemplates her wayward sister. Affection swells in her chest, but envy stirs in her belly—briefly, before it's stamped out by her good sense and maturity.

And yet, she can't help but long for her filly days when she, too, was young enough to abandon a half-filled barrel of apples with nary a twinge of regret. Apple Bloom is free, unspoiled. Applejack is confined, though of her own free will. But some days that will feels inescapable, as though an omnipotent iron hoof pins her to responsibility and duty.

When the southern orchard trees suddenly begin drooping, some mysterious growth hanging from every branch, Applejack panics. She ignores the desperate pleading from her family and immediately seeks out Twilight's library, where she begins pouring through botanical books trying to find a cure. Sweet Apple Acres is her home, and she'll be damned if she won't save it from ruin.

Big Macintosh can barely slow her down long enough to tell her the fungus is not a fungus at all, but a harmless variety of moss. She drags her tail in the dirt all the way back to the farm, embarrassed.

"It's okay," Apple Bloom chirps. "Everyone knows you've been working too hard!"

_Maybe too hard,_ Applejack thinks, and races her sister all the way to Pinkie Pie's.


	3. Pinkie Pie: School

**Pinkie Pie**

**School**

* * *

><p>Sometimes Pinkie Pie feels lonely.<p>

Before the parties, before Twilight came and clasped the final link of friendship, the emptiness overpowered her. The rock farm—_And who farms rocks, anyway? You know, I don't even think I ever knew what they were for!_—lingers in her mind as days of nothing and nothing and nothing all smooshed together like a ruined watercolor, muddy and indecipherable.

School was worse, surrounded by twenty shades of gray and brown and

_stuck here forever in the wasteland make your life in it and learn to be as unchangeable as the rocks below _

a teacher who didn't understand her appetite for spontaneity.

_yes ma'am, i will learn to be as unchangeable as the rocks_

There were no friends, not really. Unless friends are ponies you talk about rocks to and never see out from behind a desk.

She has friends now, the bestest friends in the whole world. They are all around her, caught in her bright eyes, tangled in her voracious mane, entwined about her heart.

Still, the rock-memories are persistent, and she can feel them peering at her in wonder and wariness from their place at the back of her head. She feels them now.

But then Applejack is bursting through her front door, laughing so hard she can barely stand, and Applebloom follows shortly in the same suit. Pinkie Pie rushes forward to greet them with a smile, and the memories tear themselves asunder.

_but, teacher, if you please,_ _now i will learn to live_


	4. Rarity: Showstopper

**Rarity**

**Showstopper**

* * *

><p>Sometimes Rarity feels inferior.<p>

It's hard, watching somepony else succeed where you fail.

Her family is the reason she moved to Ponyville. She began her life in Canterlot to a family already crowded with four older sisters even before she drew her first breath. She loves them—how can she not love them, so beautiful, so talented, and so confident—but knew from the time she was a tiny filly that she could not fulfill the family legacy.

Her sister invents faster ways to travel by rail. They say she will find a way to make the journey from Ponyville to Appleloosa in less than half a day.

Her sister peers down a metal tube into entire worlds and makes them do her bidding. They say she will find a cure for equine leukemia within the next ten years.

Her sister designs castles for the nobility. They say her architectural prowess will be written in the books as the new standard for equine design.

Her sister sees a jumble of numbers, squiggles, and imaginary circuits and creates light. They say she will create the most energy-saving light bulb for the next few generations.

Rarity can't make trains, form vaccinations, create imaginary palaces, make a light in the dark. She leaves, hoping her family will understand and not make her disinheritance too public. She resents their fake smiles as they watch her leave Canterlot, perhaps forever.

But one day Sweetie Belle comes, her parents' last filly, with a letter from her family, and suddenly the smiles are real. They have always been real.

_For all our careful tutoring, another of our brood transcends the Science Academy! It seems that she too is meant for more fantastic occupations. Be sure to train her well and she will become just as much a star as you, our beloved daughter. You are the pride of our family. We love you and hope you are in good health._

_Mr. and Mrs. Hoofstein: Co-Presidents, Canterlot Science Academy_

Her sister gapes at her face in awe. They say that Rarity is special, and Sweetie Belle's head is full to the brim with stories of this pony she has never seen except in pictures—_Rarity is the most skilled pony in our family, Sweetie Belle. She does things we can't even attempt._

Rarity takes scraps of fabric and gems and transforms them into a pony's fantasy overnight. They say she is the most beautiful, the most talented, the most confident of them all.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** So, I was reminded by a particularly close-reading reviewer that Rarity is actually implied to be a Ponyville native, or at the very least a not-Canterlotian native, as in episode one she says she's always wanted to live there. Rather than keep this in canon and make a huge logical stretch that she pretends she's not from Canterlot and goes out of her way to make sure people think she's not (for her family reasons), let's just bend some canon and assume this is true within the context of the story! Or you could think the first thing. Whatever works for you! I hope everyone is enjoying the little fics, and REVIEWWWWW. (See, I was trying not to put in author's notes because all I end up doing is begging for reviews and embarrassing myself. Oh, well.)


	5. Rainbow Dash: Soccer

**Rainbow Dash**

**Soccer**

* * *

><p>Sometimes Rainbow Dash feels like slowing down.<p>

Being known for speed—_faster-and-faster-than-the-wind-than-the-sky-than-time-itself_— doesn't exactly allow this. At first, she basked in the attention following the public debut of her now-signature move, the Sonic Rainboom. She enjoyed adoration from ponies who barely glanced at her not hours before.

Now, she smiles in a strained way as she complies with ponies' requests for _just one more_ Sonic Rainboom, as she considers a filly with a violent magenta mane who looks up at her in worshipful adoration.

The Sonic Rainboom shakes her more than she likes to admit. The prostrating eyes make her feel like a god.

She doesn't want to be a god. She _can't_ be a god. And having strained flank muscles isn't cool, anyway.

So when Applejack trots her way and invites her for a one-on-one game of soccer in the eastern orchard, she agrees on the spot.

This is something she doesn't know. Something that will give her pause and in all likelihood make her feel like an idiot.

But that's okay. Standing on a pedestal in the clouds is overrated. Spending time with somepony who expects her to trip up once in a while—_It's okay, Rainbow Dash. Here, try just holding the ball on top of your hoof, like this_—and is _okay_ with it, well, that's just twenty percent cooler.


	6. Twilight Sparkle: Destroyer

**Twilight Sparkle**

**Destroyer**

* * *

><p>Sometimes Twilight Sparkle feels like letting loose.<p>

Over the years, she has built up a reputation for being a determined bookworm and a well-meaning know-it-all.

Twilight must admit to herself that even in private she is exactly that. Alone, she reads the same books, takes notes on the same passages that she does around anypony who comes into her library. Constant. There is no alter ego that eclipses her docile demeanor in the night, compelling her to run rampant across Equestria fighting crime and protecting the innocent.

But sometimes she wants to be that pony.

She wants to be a savior to somepony.

She wants to be a savior to herself.

She wants ponies to acknowledge her for something that isn't her careful organization of seasonal chores.

She wants to level a forest just because she can, to freeze over a sea just because it's too troublesome to walk around, to command a hurricane and watch it devastate the landscape just because the raw power of nature is so exquisite to behold.

She wants ponies to see her when she canters by and say

_There she goes, the Mare of the Elements, the Destroyer of Worlds, tread carefully near her path _

and not

_There's Twilight, let's go ask her what "porous" means_

because even Twilight Sparkle feels like being a legend some days.

For now, she lives in her books and continues to find transfer ribonucleic acid fascinating. This escapes Spike completely, and bores anypony that she can corner long enough in order to explain the finer details.

But one night, a threshold will be left exposed in her sights for too long.

_there she goes_

And she will wander the land in search of herself; Celestia knows what she will discover there.

_a mare of the elements_

"I'm going to shut the window already," Spike announces. "You're letting in the rain, and anyway it's freezing."

_a destroyer of worlds_

"Find a blanket this time, Spike. It's important to leave all my options wide open."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Epilogue: rocks fall, everyone dies. Thanks to everyone who read this, especially those of you who don't even watch the show (jayaaaanx!). It means a lot to me, as does everyone's heartfelt reviews. Thanks again to The Evil Author who reminded me to put a note about Rarity at the bottom of her chapter! I was trying to make these come out cleaner and ditch my usual personal intros, but apparently they can actually be used productively! Thanks to everyone who favorited and alerted (though I would really appreciate a review, even a small one)! A word of warning: you may see more ponies from me in the future. And I haven't given up on my Bicycle series! It is only a pause.

Also, everyone check out the new poll on my profile page!


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